What to do when you've ran out of PCI slots?

[Comp625]

Hey guys, I sorta need some assistance here. I'm fresh out of PCI slots on my ASUS A7V (5 PCI slots). Here are the things that are taking up slots: Slot fan (in the first slot to cool my GF2 in the nearby AGP slot), Linksys NIC, Soundblaster Live, USB expansion card, RAID controller.

I'm thinking of buying a TV Tuner PCI card. I'm out of PCI slots though. What can I do? I'm thinking of taking out my USB expansion card and hot swapping my USB devices on the 2 intergrated USB ports. But that would mean I would have to reinstall all the drivers, and having to crawl down behind my computer to hot swap my printer, scanner and gamepad. A USB hub would sound logical in this situation but that would mean another $30 ~ $50 that I would have to spend.

So what can I do if I don't want to remove my USB expansion card?

 

[bozo1]

Spend the $30 on a hub if you need to watch TV.

 

[Sundog]

Either get a USB hub or scrub that slot cooler and put in a blowhole in the side of your case to help cool off the vid card.

 

[HouRman]

Buy a USB to PCI adapter, j/k

Do you really need the Fan to cool your geforce? Have you tried an additional case fan and taking the PCI fan out?

Can your game pad plug into the sound card game port?
Is your Printer only USB? Why not use the printer port.

 

[AndyHui]

Does the A7V have a CNR? Get a CNR NIC.

 

[Comp625]

My printer is an HP 932C. Yes it's capable of connecting to the Parallel Port. Never thought of that!

There's another problem that may arise though. Some of my PCI cards are huge (thickness wise). Is it okay if the PCI cards are very close to touching each other? (eg My NIC may touch the back of my SBLive).

 

[CraigRT]

i'd ditch the slot cooler for sure.. that's a no cost thing and the video card doesn't need it anyways.. if it's hardcore overclocked just bump it down a tad... no biggie really. but yeah, slot cooler say bye bye if it was me.

 

[Zlash]

Yup get rid of the fan and usb ports.

 

[Comp625]

Think my CL GF2 32mb AGP can handle the overclocked speeds? The stock speeds are 200/333. I o/ced it to 220/375. I hope the tiny heatsink can handle the heat because the slot cooler actually sucked out alot of the heat emitted by the heatsink.

 

[AA0]

doesn't the A7V already have RAID on it? Mine does...

good case circulation eliminates slot fans.

The USB hub is also possible, as said.

 

[spamsk8r]

<< Think my CL GF2 32mb AGP can handle the overclocked speeds? The stock speeds are 200/333. I o/ced it to 220/375. I hope the tiny heatsink can handle the heat because the slot cooler actually sucked out alot of the heat emitted by the heatsink. >>



Yes it can handle it, I run my MSI Geforce 2 GTS 32mb card at 245/395 with a crystal orb and no ram cooling and it runs just fine with no fans blowing on it whatsoever

 

[jonmcc33]

Here are the things that are taking up slots: Slot fan (in the first slot to cool my GF2 in the nearby AGP slot), Linksys NIC, Soundblaster Live, USB expansion card, RAID controller.

Take out that slot fan. You have a GeForce2 so it's not exactly that hot enough to warrant a large PCI slot cooler. The NIC, sound card, USB card, and RAID controller are necessary so you can leave those.

Also, as suggested, you can get something like a USB ATi TV Tuner and just connect it via USB. But really get rid of that PCI slot cooler.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

You could also try one of those USB hubs that come with built-in 10/100 ...

 

[FatMan42]

What to do when you've ran out of PCI slots?
...buy a motherboard with more PCI slots! j/k - why not re-shuffle your cooling, ditch the slot cooler and get a USB TV tuner like this?

 

[Anzu]

Get a USB hub and ditch the slot cooler. You'll have one slot for your TV tuner and one free slot besides that.

 

[QTPie]

"Get a USB hub and ditch the slot cooler"

You'll reclaim your 2 PCI slots for just doing that.
I've seen many 4-port USB hub for $10 or even free AR.

There are also devices that have USB hub built-in.
My Viewsonic G773 17" has built-in 4-port USB hub.
Microsoft keyboard has 2 USB ports.

 

[woolmilk]

there are also USB-TV adaptors. But check the video quality before buying.
You could also buy an aiw radeon or a new mainboard (my dragon+ saves me 3 pci slots